(Obituary Published in Times Argus on January 3, 2013. Photo Courtesy of Times Argus)
Chelsea, Vt. — Janet Cheryl Field, beloved wife, mother, grandmother and friend died peacefully on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, at her home of 40 years, the Hyde House in Chelsea Village. Jan was born on a small dairy farm in central Wisconsin on June 25, 1945, the third of four children of Marlyn Buchholz who died in 1973 and Viola Buchholz who died in 2010.
Jan lived all her life in service to her family and many others in her hometown of Chelsea, in the State of Vermont, the United States of America and in the world. Following her graduation from high school in Weyauwega, Wis., Jan worked several years in Milwaukee before volunteering for the Peace Corps in 1966. After training in the Florida Keys she was the first volunteer to enter the Truk District of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Among other duties, she helped manage the Peace Corps’ first two in-country volunteer training programs. In Truk, she met William Field, a recent law school graduate from out east and they were married in Truk on May 5, 1968. After serving in the Peace Corps, Jan and Bill lived and worked in central Massachusetts for four years before moving to Chelsea, on Tunbridge Fair weekend in 1972.
In February of 1972, they adopted a three year old son named William B. (B) Field and in October of that same year Jan gave birth to son Addison Field followed by daughter Carrianna (Carrie) Field in 1975.
Over the next 18 years while raising her children, Jan worked as secretary and paralegal assistant in her husband’s law office in Chelsea. Following removal of that practice to Barre, Jan worked for the Institute for Sustainable Communities supporting environmental programs in Eastern Europe and in a student services office at Norwich University. In Chelsea she served at various times as a member of the school board, justice of the peace, Sunday school teacher, youth group leader, Cub Scout leader, Chelsea Parks Commission, and member and chair of the Executive Committee of the United Church of Chelsea. She also served as a trustee of Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire. She was parent representative to Vermont Children and Adolescent Service System Program working on the implementation of state programs for children and adolescents with special needs.
In 1994, Jan began fulfillment of a lifelong ambition to obtain a college education, graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 1997. While at Mount Holyoke College, she worked as a residential life coordinator creating new resource services for adult woman enrolled at the college to aid in their adaptation to college life and practices. At Mount Holyoke she was a classmate of her daughter Carrie and after a spirited competition to see who would have the highest grade point average, she just edged out Carrie graduating magna cum laude. College degree in hand, she first worked in student services at Franklin Pierce College in Lebanon, N.H.; she worked as statewide mentor coordination for Central Vermont Community Action Agency providing mentoring and support systems for eligible persons doing business startups. She worked subsequently for New Directions for Barre working with youth on issues related to alcohol, tobacco and other drug addictions and guiding young people in social adaptations and conflict issues.
In 2005, she joined the Peace Corps Crisis Corps, an organization of returned Peace Corps volunteers with a mission to respond to natural disasters around the world. This became the first Peace Corps program implemented within the United States during the national response to Hurricane Katrina. While in Mississippi with the Crisis Corps, she connected with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and subsequently responded with FEMA to natural disasters in many states including her home states of Vermont and Wisconsin as well as Florida, Alabama, Pennsylvania, California, West Virginia, Indiana and Illinois. In Wisconsin, she was recognized in local papers for assisting in an emergency evacuation of seniors from their homes.
Jan was with FEMA in West Virginia in April 2012 when she was found to have a lung tumor. This was the fourth cancer she battled during her life; although she felt she was in control fighting the other cancers, this time she knew was different.
She leaves behind Bill, her best friend and husband of 44 years; an amazing mother, Jan felt her highest accomplishment was her children and she leaves her son, Addison and his daughters, Lena and Aurelia of Juneau, Alaska; her daughter, Carrie and her husband, Matthew Wax-Krell and their son, Grady Waxkrell of West Hartford, Conn. She also leaves behind her brother and his wife, Nathan and Mary Buchholz of Rock Hill, S.C.; her sister and husband, Joan and Ron Engels of Pelican Lake, Wis., her sister and husband, Shirley and Steve Sternberg of New London, Wis.; the companion of her mother, Fritz Douglas of Weyauwega, Wis.; and many beloved nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her mother and father; a brother-in-law, Jerry Lehman; and her son, William B. Field who died in Miami, Fla. on Dec. 25, 2012 and many other close and enduring friends.
Jan enjoyed reading from an early age, cross-country skiing, swimming for hours at her camp in Wolcott, Vt., being with her Sophia Circle friends and many other friends and family. She had an abiding faith in God and felt she was passing to a different realm of consciousness and being.
Calling hours will be held on Friday, Jan. 4, 2013, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Boardway & Cilley Funeral Home, 300 VT RT 110, Chelsea. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013, at 7 p.m. at the United Church of Chelsea in Chelsea with Rev. Deadra Ashton officiating. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to either: The Vermont Disaster Relief Fund, P.O. Box 843, Montpelier, Vt. 05601 or The American Cancer Society for lung cancer research, P.O. Box 22718, Oklahoma City, Okla. 73123-1718 or the Endowment Fund of the United Church of Chelsea, P.O. Box 98, Chelsea, Vt. 05038.